This invention relates to a device for supporting textile fiber bales during the bale breaking operation. The apparatus includes vertically oriented lateral bale guiding walls between which a row of textile fiber bales are positioned and which are movable back and forth with the bales as the bale breaking operation is performed at the bottom thereof.
An apparatus of the above-outlined type is known and is disclosed, for example, in German Pat. No. 2,018,445. The apparatus described in this patent includes a conveying device having upwardly and downwardly open housings for receiving, supporting and advancing a number of textile fiber bales in the longitudinal direction from portions of a baseplate along breaker devices arranged underneath the baseplate. The housings have carrying devices, behind which the carrier pins of a conveying chain project to thus move the housings with the textile fiber bales along the baseplate. The textile fiber bales expand as, during operation, the bale ties are removed from the textile fiber bales that were, up to that moment, firmly compressed by the bale ties. The expanded (relaxed) textile fiber bales have various dimensions. If now such relaxed textile fiber bales are inserted in the housings, an intermediate space is present between the bale and the bale guiding walls of the housing in case the textile fiber bale does not entirely fill out the respective housing. This results in an undesired play of the textile fiber bale, so that a firm and secure guidance over the breaker mechanism cannot be ensured. It is further of disadvantage that in such an arrangement the housings have additional intermediate spaces between one another in the working direction (that is, in the direction of bale advance) between the transverse separating walls, so that the textile fiber bales cannot be positioned serially closely together.